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“Once Saved, Always Saved.” Sure About That?

  • 2 hours ago
  • 8 min read
HighBeamMinistry.com

“He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:15)

 

“…Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later, the rest of the virgins also came and said, ‘Master, master, open up for us!’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you!’” (Matthew 25:10-12)

 

“And throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:30)

 

If you ever want to get into a fierce, nearly Olympic-level argument, step on someone’s “Once saved, always saved” theology toes.

 

Once saved, always saved?

 

Sure about that?

 

Yeah, I know the arguments on both sides. I was raised in a Lutheran denomination leaning toward Arminian theology (the LCA, then ALC, and then, as it morphed, the wayward ELCA. I’m glad I finally escaped that mess!). In my 20s, my wife and I moved with our baby girl to Columbia, South Carolina. There, we started in an Assemblies of God congregation, but then the Lord led us to switch to a friend’s Baptist congregation. We must have hit it at just the right time. The Pastor decided to preach on Calvin’s Doctrines of Grace.

 

Every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening.

 

All five T.U.L.I.P. petals.

 

Every verse.

 

Every.

 

Verse.

 

For those of you crazy, non-Calvinist, Jacob Arminius fans, T.U.L.I.P. is a Calvinist acronym to remember the key points of Five-Point Calvinism, i.e., Reformed Theology’s primary beliefs about salvation:

 

  1. Total Depravity – As a result of Adam’s fall, the entire human race is affected; all humanity is dead in trespasses and sins. Man is unable to save himself.

  2. Unconditional Election – Because man is dead in sin, he is unable to initiate a response to God; therefore, in eternity past, God elected certain people to salvation. Election and predestination are unconditional; they are not based on man’s response because man is unable to respond, nor does he want to.

  3. Limited Atonement – Because God determined that certain ones should be saved as a result of God’s unconditional election, He determined that Christ should die for the elect alone. All whom God has elected and for whom Christ died will be saved.

  4. Irresistible Grace – Those whom God elected, He draws to Himself through irresistible grace. God makes man willing to come to Him. When God calls, man responds.

  5. Perseverance of the Saints – The precise ones God has elected and drawn to Himself through the Holy Spirit will persevere in faith. None whom God has elected will be lost; they are eternally secure.

 

For you wild, non-Arminianist, John Calvin fans, here are the Arminian beliefs about salvation:

 

  1. Partial Depravity – humanity is depraved but still able to seek God.

  2. Conditional Election – God only “chooses” those whom He knows will choose to believe. No one is predetermined for either heaven or hell.

  3. Unlimited Atonement – Jesus died for everyone, even those who are not chosen and will not believe. Jesus’ death was for all of humanity, and anyone can be saved by belief in Him.

  4. Resistible Grace – God’s call to be saved can be resisted and/or rejected. We can resist God’s pull toward salvation if we choose to.

  5. Conditional Salvation – Christians can lose their salvation if they actively reject the Holy Spirit’s influence in their lives. The maintenance of salvation is required for a Christian to retain it.

 

Confession time. I’m a mix of the two. I think both points of view are nearer and farther from the absolute truth. Yes, people are totally lost and can’t save themselves. No, for the most part, I don’t believe that God predestines or elects all people for salvation or hell (https://www.gotquestions.org/unconditional-election.html). Yes, I believe Jesus’ atonement applies only and fully to those who are saved, not to the unsaved. No, I don’t believe the Holy Spirit’s pull is irresistible, and that you will get saved whether you like it or not. And no, I don’t believe that our salvation is “once saved, always saved.”

 

Why not “once saved, always saved?” Because I believe Jesus Himself is clear about the subject, and I don’t have to rely on a single verse or stretch any scripture to reach that conclusion. Let me show you.

 

Jesus spoke the following three parables to warn His End Time disciples, the ones who would be alive at His End Time Return, to be prepared or miss out on entering His kingdom.

 

The Parable of the Wise and Wicked Servants (Matthew 24:45-51)

The main characters in this parable are a wise and a wicked servant. I don’t have to rehash the text. You can read it yourself. Actually, that’s a good idea. Open your Bible app or a physical Bible, and read the three references first. I’ll pause while you do that.

 

As you just read, the entire parable is about a Master’s Servants. There are absolutely no non-servants involved. Therefore, this parable is about a disciple’s Personal Responsibility. Those disciples who are prepared for His return will continue their relationship with their Master. Those disciples who are not prepared, act wickedly, and are surprised when they thought they had more time will be cut into pieces and assigned to a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (paraphrase).

 

Now, many Calvinists will immediately jump on the “hypocrite” reference as “those who pretend, but are not.” Therefore, only the wise servant is the Master’s servant, but the other is not. Now you have a contradiction. It’s clear. They both belonged to the Master. To say the wicked servant is not really a servant breaks the scripture. Let me be blunt. To take the position that one of these servants wasn’t saved and then use this scripture to say that, among those counted as real disciples of Jesus at the End, some are not really saved and merely masquerading as disciples, is eisegesis and an errant interpretation.

 

That is called eisegesis, “the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one’s own ideas” (merriam-webster.com). The Reformed Theology pastor, theologian, disciple is reading an inference into the parable to make it fit their theological bias.

 

Direct meaning: The parable is about Jesus’ End Times disciple taking the responsibility to be prepared for Jesus’ Return seriously, rather than not doing so because Jesus has been gone a long time and won’t return soon. This, despite Jesus’ previously explained signs appearing all over the world, especially the previously referred to Antichrist. Those disciples who are irresponsible, thinking they can abuse the system, will lose their relationship with Jesus and join the unsaved who masquerade as disciples in eternal judgment.

 

Reformed meaning: The parable is about Jesus’ End Times disciples whose salvation is absolutely secure, as stated in the Perseverance of the Saints doctrine, so those who are thrown out are, in fact, only lost people masquerading as disciples, and whose wicked actions reveal their true unredeemed spiritual nature fit for eternal judgment.

 

That doesn’t work. There is no “once a servant of the Master, always a servant of the Master.”

 

The Parable of the Ten Wedding Attendants (Matthew 25:1-13)

This parable is about the End Time disciples’ personal state (Bridal Attendants). No, this parable is not about being the Bride of Christ. It’s a simple illustration. While we work (previous parable), we also need to be ready to respond when Jesus shows up (this parable).

 

Again, there may be Five Wise and Five Foolish bridal attendants, but they’re all attendants. Sorry, am I shouting too loudly? (*ahem*) Whispered: They’re all attendants.

 

There are no true or false attendants; once again, this imposes a Reformed Theology bias on the text. Once again, Jesus is speaking specifically to His disciples, both then and in the future. He’s not talking to crowds of followers or to those who rejected Him. Those End Time disciples who are ready to respond to Jesus’ Return will be part of His earthly kingdom. Those End Time disciples who are not ready to respond to Jesus’ Return may very well find themselves not a part of Jesus’ kingdom – heavenly or earthly.

 

There is no “once a bridal attendant, always a bridal attendant.”

 

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

Now, we hit the trifecta. Long parable, short: like the two previous parables on preparing for Jesus’ Return, this one isn’t about personal responsibility (to remain working) or personal preparation (to remain ready while being an on-the-job disciple). This parable is about the End Time disciple’s personal productivity (Talents being a unit of money).

 

The parable’s focus is again on three servants and how they manage the Master’s goods while he’s away. As in the first parable, there’s no “once a servant of the Master, always a servant of the Master.” The two servants who were productive with what the Master gave them continued in his household. The servant who refused to be productive for the Master will experience the “throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” punishment.

 

Hmm, a disciple that’s thrown into outer darkness for foolishly refusing to be productive for the Lord. That sounds like something else Jesus said. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes” (John 15:1-2).

 

Did you catch that? Every branch in me. That means saved, not masquerading hypocritically as a disciple. Yup, the disciple that doesn’t produce fruit will be excised from the tree. It can’t be said that Jesus is talking about false branches pretending to be real branches.

 

If we put the three parables together, we can conclude that shirking our personal responsibility, personal preparation, and personal productivity will affect our eternal life. There will be “I don’t know you!” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth in outer darkness.”

 

Don’t fight with me. Fight with Jesus’ own words.

 

Let the Bible say what it says. We also need to do that with as deep an understanding of the original context as we can. A text without a context is a pretext. In other words, if we use a text outside of its context, we can make the text mean whatever we want. The context is Jesus’ Return, and how His disciples should be prepared or risk losing their relationship with Him and being “cut off” for good.

 

All of this said, here’s my solution to the “once saved, always saved” vs. “you can lose your salvation” debate:

 

Stay responsible, stay prepared, and stay at work, producing as much fruit for the kingdom as you can. That’s all this debate needs.

 

But it will be fun to have Jesus settle this, right?

 

Sources:

 

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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead

 

Pastor Jay Christianson

The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts

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